Posts tagged with "Entomology"

How do you measure a beetle’s strength or the speed of a centipede? Bug Lab for Kids, by entomologist John Guyton, reveals the answers to these questions, among others. The book is divided into nine well-organized units, each containing several lab exercises. An introductory section provides helpful advice regarding appropriate attire for fieldwork, first aid… Read More

Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology
Lisa Margonelli

Lisa Margonelli’s Underbug book is definitely not about termites—at least, not as an entomologist would view them. Instead, it consists of stories of visits to labs and field sites, with reflections on questions raised by the research and researchers she encounters. Accounts of the biology of termites are scattered through chapters on how so-called “advanced”… Read More

We have bees to thank for some of the better features of our world, from the fruits and vegetables we eat to the world’s flowering plants, which radiated alongside them during the Cretaceous. Nearly 90% of plant species require pollinators (an added benefit for anyone who suffers from wind-borne pollen allergies). Humans even seem to… Read More

In Paul Meisel’s My Awesome Summer by P. Mantis, a praying mantis describes her life through a series of succinct journal entries. “I was born today!” she writes on 17 May. As P. Mantis grows from nymph to adult, she eats aphids, catches grasshoppers and bees with her speedy arms and sharp teeth, and uses… Read More

Bugged: The Insects Who Rule the World and the People Obsessed with Them
David MacNeal

A journalist by trade, David MacNeal awakened his “inner entophile” after pinning a large lubber grasshopper for the first time. In Bugged, he sets off on a journey to understand insects and the people who study them. Bugged provides summaries of a range of fields, including integrated pest management, forensic entomology, and entomophagy (the practice… Read More

Age Range: 5 – 8 years Grade Level: Kindergarten – 3 A Beetle Is Shy introduces children to the staggering diversity of beetles, from common ladybugs to titan beetles to boll weevils. The book begins by explaining that a beetle is “shy” because of the way it enters the world— inside an egg case camouflaged… Read More